Spirit Laid To Rest
by Blue-EyesGirl-fic
Summary: It wasn't until Battle City that that lingering presence in his life made sense. AU manga canon.


Beta: live_with_love  
Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! and its characters belong to Kazuki Takahashi  
Pairings/Characters: Slight Kaiba Seto/Kisara.  
Kaiba Seto, Kisara, Pegasus J Crawford, Kaiba Mokuba  
Content: Non-graphic mentions of canon child abuse and off screen character death

* * *

It was a long time ago, or what seemed like long ago, that he first felt that someone else was there.

Seto was collapsed on one of the sofa's in his study room as he tried to sleep in the small break he'd been allowed, though the collar had been left firmly clamped around his neck.

On the edge between consciousness and sleep, he had thought he'd imagined the gentle touch. Almost like someone was gently stroking his hair. He'd smiled a little, relaxing at the touches, comforted by it as his Mother had once done the same thing. He'd thought that maybe it was her. Seto had lifted his head, hair still gently being stroked, but he couldn't see anyone. He pressed his hand over where the phantom touch was. "We'll be ok," Seto reassured her. The hair stroking had continued but he felt better having reassured her.

It stopped abruptly when his next teacher arrived and Seto was sure she had left.

* * *

Kaiba stared up at the canopy of his bed. He wouldn't sleep tonight, not after last night. He refused to experience that horror again, refused to feel death over and over again. He startled at a sudden touch, sitting up abruptly, thinking that perhaps he had fallen asleep. But after another moment the touch began again, stroking gently over his hair, probably trying to soothe him. Kaiba barely remembered the last time and he certainly didn't think it was his Mother; part of him didn't want it to be.

"Leave me!" he demanded, batting at the invisible touch. It felt achingly familiar at the same time that the touch was bringing up feelings of shame and anger and betrayal. "Who – No. Whatever you are I do not need your pity." He spat the words in anger and hate.

The touch disappeared but something told him the presence had not. He dismissed that thought as nonsense. Ghosts or angels or whatever it was did not exist and he refused to acknowledge such nonsense even from his own mind. Kaiba laid down again and laid on his side, hopefully with his back to whatever it was, still determined not to sleep.

She continued to linger but she didn't approach him any more. Her presence growing stronger but not gradually. Just at four particular moments.

* * *

By all rights, the first moment that he had woken from the coma and gotten to his feet he should have been straight on the ground again, his muscles weak from not being used for months.

But she had been there again and she had kept him upright and when he had drawn his gaze away from the window, away from a duel happening miles and miles away, he finally saw her. She was female as he had always somehow known or expected her to be. Long white hair, pale skin and big blue eyes, a small smile on her face as she looked at him with an emotion that Seto didn't recognise.

He didn't know who she was, why she was here ,and her smile was a little less bright as he continued to look at her in confusion.

He turned at the sound of the door being pushed hurriedly open as a doctor had come to check up on him. In that moment, she vanished again but, as before, her presence still lingered.

* * *

She was more prominent in his duel with Pegasus. He wasn't sure if he could still see her but she hovered behind him, protective as her hands gently rested on his shoulders. Seto didn't have time to ponder _why_ he didn't find it annoying, he just found it to be a little comfort in the back of his mind as she reassured him when that bastard took his card and turned it into that hideous mockery of _his_ Blue Eyes.

He played his last card. There was nothing more he could do. Pegasus had been just as invincible as he had once told Mokuba. _Forgive me Mokuba, I couldn't save you._ Her arms wrapped around his shoulders as if she had heard his thoughts, pressing her cheek against his.

"You're smart, Kaiba boy~" Pegasus interrupted his thoughts. "You know what stakes I play for, don't you? In this game losers lose everything, what is most precious to them, and even more they lose their own souls."

She clutched at him, he could feel her protectiveness, her fear and… her sorrow? He didn't understand why and he didn't have time to think much on it before his soul was sealed by Pegasus.

He was sure though that he had felt something wet on his face.

* * *

It was his duel against Ishizu that finally made him realise why this woman seemed to be watching over him. Those memories had caused a sadness that he hadn't felt since losing his parents, that horrible ache in his chest, Seto almost felt like he could still feel her in his arms as the memories faded and he looked down at the cards in his hand.

She and Blue Eyes were the same? He wasn't sure how or why but somehow it just made sense.

Seto pulled himself out of his thoughts and began making his moves. He had a 'destiny' to smash to pieces.

She didn't appear until much later that evening, when Mokuba had long since fallen asleep and Seto himself was sat at his computer, still running deck combinations to face Ra. He knew she was there but she greeted him with a gentle stroke of his hair and he continued his work for a moment, letting her pet his hair as she liked.

He wondered if it was just as much about reassuring herself as comforting him as he turned to look at her. Seto wondered if she could speak and why was she even here. "Shouldn't you be with him?" he murmured, mostly to himself, not expecting an answer from her. Maybe she was just a figment of his imagination, conjured up by memories that weren't his and fuelled by not enough sleep and too much coffee over the years.

A soft giggle filtered into his mind, as if she'd heard him still stubbornly trying to rationalise this, and he focused on her again. _I protected him as his ka and now I am here to protect you_. Her voice was gentle, warm and soothingly familiar to him.

"Why couldn't I see you when I first got my cards?" he asked, now understanding why her presence had gotten stronger in stages like that.

Her smile turned a little sad. _You weren't ready, Seto-sama. You just wanted to use us as tools for your revenge. Now, we're your pride and your soul; isn't that much better?_ She finished with a much brighter smile, evidently pleased with his words earlier.

Seto tried not to think about the feeling that might have been slight embarrassment as he nodded and returned to looking at the screen.

She continued to perch on the console, stroking his hair as he calmly went back to working.

"What's your name?" he asked softly. It was hours since either of them had spoken; sat in a comforting silence, she'd been rather mesmerised by his typing on this… thing, whatever it was that glowed and made noise.

_It's Kisara_, she murmured, not seeing any harm in telling him.

"Will you ever pass on?"

She smiles a little. _Maybe one day, Seto-sama. A part of me already has. Though I think it's waiting for the rest of me but we will always be here to protect you._

Neither of them was sure if the other understood the unspoken truth in that.

* * *

His fingers trembled as he picked up the first of three. He'd read the will what felt like a thousand times and he still was sure he'd misread it. Nii-sama had loved his Blue Eyes so much; did he really mean for them to be torn just like that fourth one.

Even now, he trusted his brother and with hesitation, as though his brother would come crashing through the door and yell at him or ground him for even thinking of doing what he was about to, Mokuba began to rip the first Blue Eyes White Dragon card.

He couldn't help the tears as he ripped them in half. As he laid down the two halves of the last and final card, he felt as though his brother had truly left this world behind him.

A hand patted him on the head and ruffled his hair gently, like Seto had done when Mokuba was just a kid and only half his height. _Thank you, Mokuba._ He'd half expected to hear his brother's voice but this was the voice of a young woman.

"Wh – who's there?" he whispered as the pressure on his head withdrew; once upon a time something like this wouldn't have bothered him but it was so long since anything strange or magical had happened to them that it was odd to think about again.

_I was once a girl but for a long time I have been the Blue Eyes White Dragon. And now I'm finally free to pass on to the afterlife,_ the voice spoke as he looked around the room for her.

He paused, vaguely remembering Seto mentioning something like that, once or twice when he thought no-one heard or was listening.

"Kisara?"

She smiled to herself, wishing Mokuba could see her as some sort of reassurance to him. _Thank you, Mokuba_, she told him once more before her presence too was finally gone from the world of the living.


End file.
